Families and Personal Networks An International Comparative Perspective

81

normative differentiation in the three national contexts, which will
certainly account for the variations in the composition of personal
networks. It is important to highlight the difference in educational
backgrounds, with Lithuania standing as highly qualified and Portugal
with a strong presence of low qualified individuals. Regarding the
normative context, we can see a strong contrast mainly between
Switzerland and Lithuania: the Swiss profile is characterized by a low
degree of child-centredness and a high level of agreement with emer-
gent family forms, in line with more individualistic values; whereas
Lithuania reveals the opposite pattern, which is consistent with more
traditional visions of family life. Portugal assumes an intermediate
position, revealing the double-bind behaviour that characterizes this
society in relation to family change: the conciliation of traditional
values of the past with changing trends of modernization (Almeida
et al. 1998 ).
These cross-national differences in family-related attitudes show that
social change is uneven and multilayered rather than linear. Instead of an
overall trend towards the acceptance of family diversity and the loss of the
normative centrality of children and parenthood, the three countries
show different attitudinal profiles, meaning dissimilar visions of the
proper way to be a family. These attitudes reflect different normative
expectations regulating the construction of personal relationships in the
three countries.

3.26 3.60 3.58 3.03

2.34

3.83

Portugal Switzerland Lithuania

Alternative family forms Child-centredness

Fig. 3.5 Variations of attitudinal indexes by country. Mean scores of level of
agreement, with scale: 1 = Totally disagree; 2 = Disagree; 3 = Neither agree, nor
disagree; 4 = Agree; 5 = Totally agree

A First Portrait of Personal Networks in a Comparative...